Windows XP: Tested, tried, and true. It’s so trusted that when Windows Vista became available in 2007, Microsoft extended XP’s planned lifecycle by almost double the normal length to continue supporting the large number of companies who remained on Windows XP.

But everything changed on April 8th, 2014. After twelve years, Microsoft officially discontinued support for the operating system. This leaves an estimated 200 millioncomputers vulnerable to security issues. These security issues could be exploited by unscrupulous people to generate and propagate malware, viruses and spam campaigns. That could affect us all, and lead to the dawn of the XP Apocalypse.

For SOLIDWORKS users, the discontinuation of Windows XP support isn’t new news – they’ve known since the 2012 release. When Microsoft switched from providing full operating system support to providing security fixes only, SOLIDWORKS discontinued support for SOLIDWORKS on Windows XP. Most users either bought new PCs or upgraded their operating system so they could continue to run the latest and greatest version of SOLIDWORKS. But there were some customers who decided to stick it out with SOLIDWORKS 2012. Now, they’re stuck. Not only can they not run the latest version of SOLIDWORKS, their system is a potential time-bomb of unwanted problems.

For individual users in the latter category, the best way to avert a personal XP Apocalypse is to buy a new PC. It’s unlikely that the XP hardware they have can support Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 8. But for small, medium, and large businesses, upgrading lots of hardware – not to mention the process to deploy the hardware – could be a huge expense.

One possible solution is NVIDIA GRID VCA. In essence, the GRID is an appliance-like a router or network-attached storage. It sits in your server room and allows you to serve SOLIDWORKS sessions over a network connection. And it’s not just serving you a license like a SOLIDWORKS network license manager. It’s delivering the actual SOLIDWORKS application with the full graphical fidelity and performance that you’re used to on your local desktop. This opens up a whole list of opportunities. You can essentially use the GRID from anywhere with a network connection, and on basically any device. It has a Windows client that supports all the way back to Windows XP, an Apple Macintosh client, and even a Linux client.

Avoid the XP Apocalypse

Here’s how I see things being implemented in a Windows XP environment:

Windows XP system lock down.

a. Install appropriate anti-virus and anti-spyware tools on the Windows XP machines and setup internal tools to monitor that they are up-to-date and to deploy updates as often as possible.
b. Eliminate the internet connection to the Windows XP machines. E-mail and web browsing can be done through GRID VCA sessions as needed.
c. Implement NVIDIA GRID VCA. Hawk Ridge Systems can assist you with this process through our half-day implementation process where we help you plan your implementation, setup/install the hardware, get your template set up, and train you how to administer GRID VCA.
d. Setup an internal network between the Windows XP machines and your GRID VCA and install GRID VCA client on Windows XP machines.
e. Use the latest version of SOLIDWORKS through GRID VCA.

With this method, not only have we given some additional life Windows XP machines and bought some time to plan a migration away from Windows XP, we have also:

Given users that were stuck on an older version of SOLIDWORKS the ability to run the latest version of SOLIDWORKS

Added an additional layer of internal security because files can be put on the GRID but can’t be taken off the GRID

Added an additional layer of external security because if a session is exposed to something malicious it will be eliminated on reboot due to the stateless nature of a GRID VCA session

Added in support for other devices like Linux and Macintosh

Streamlined administration of SOLIDWORKS by reducing the number of systems that SOLIDWORKS needs to be installed on to one

Improved the potential to maximize usage of SOLIDWORKS assets by making them available from any internet connection to any user

Provided an additional option for SOLIDWORKS hardware deployment: it is no longer necessary to buy high-end PCs for all users; average systems can be purchased for most users, who can use the performance of GRID VCA on demand when they need to use SOLIDWORKS

So all-in-all, while the XP Apocalypse is real and is here to stay, it isn’t something to lose sleep over. There is a solution.

Suppose you want to make a SOLIDWORKS Universal BOM Template for mixed weldments which incorporates weldment structural members but also sheet or plate and even purchased parts. Suppose you also want to automate the BOM as much as possible to avoid manually inputting data and have it update parametrically with changes in your design… How do you accommodate the three different types of components so that manufacturing knows which materials to use, and accounting can quickly add up the material costs?

Using nested IF statements in your BOM columns, you can do just that. For the BOM above, the only values which require manual input into the parts are Part Number and Description. Description should already be defined at the profile level for all of your structural members anyway. None of the cells are being managed manually at the drawing level, which is as it should be for a parametric CAD tool.

To do this, just create a weldment using structural members as you would normally, but make sure that you are creating any sheet metal or plate parts using the Base Flange/Tab in the Sheet Metal tool instead of a regular Boss/Base Extrude. We also recommend that if you commonly use flat bar in your designs that you create custom Weldment Profiles and create those parts as structural members. Update your cutlist, and give each cutlist body folder a custom property called PART NUMBER. Description will automatically be filled out for structural members, and for the plate components; we recommend copying and pasting the Value/Text Expression from the Sheet Metal Thickness property followed by your unit of measure and “PLATE”, so that the thickness updates parametrically with design changes (see below).

Now, put your model into a drawing and add a Bill of Materials using the BOM-standard template that comes with SOLIDWORKS. For BOM Type, select Indented with Flat Numbering and check the Detailed Cut List checkbox. Right click the column header for QTY, and insert a column to the right. Select “LENGTH” from the custom properties drop-down that appears. Repeat this process to create columns for BOUNDING BOX LENGTH and BOUNDING BOX WIDTH. Also create two more columns without selecting a custom property (just click in the paper space when the dialog pops up) and title these USAGE and UM.

At this point, since we created an indented BOM instead of a weldment cutlist, there will be a top-level row for your weldment file and any other top-level components (if you are working with an assembly instead of a single part). The assembly used in this example consists of the main weldment, threaded base plates and the leveling legs. If you want to keep the top-level rows in your BOM and give them custom properties, remember that these are coming from the file->custom properties menu, not the cutlist since these are top-level components. Also, you can change the “flat numbering” style we specified earlier to “detailed numbering”. This will change the numbering scheme to 1, 1.1, 1.2, etc. for the top-level components and all subcomponents.

If you don’t want these rows in your BOM, you can simply right click on the row and hide it. Alternatively, you can expand the BOM with a left click on the three arrowheads on the left and use the minus sign or dissolve command to properly condense them.

If you have filled out all of the DESCRIPTION and PART NUMBER fields at the model level, they should be correctly displayed on the BOM. QTY is also calculated automatically. All of your structural members should have a LENGTH, and all of your sheet/plate components should have a BOUNDING BOX LENGTH and BOUNDING BOX WIDTH. (Note that you can use Bounding Box Area, too, but we prefer length and width because this tells the fabricators the dimensions for each piece.)

The last two columns are the real secret to the universal weldment BOM template. Here we will be using a nested IF statement to differentiate between the three component types. Left click on the column header above USAGE and click on the summation sign (Σ). This will open the equation editor and we will be applying the equation to the entire column.

This is telling SOLIDWORKS that if the component has a length, it is a structural member and should calculate total usage based on the length times the quantity. If it doesn’t, it is either a plate/sheet component, or a purchase part. If it has a bounding box width, it is a sheet/plate component and total usage is the length times the width times the quantity. If it’s neither, it must be a purchased part, and we just report the quantity. We do something similar for the Unit of Measure (UM) field. The equation for the Unit of Measure is:

IF(‘LENGTH’>0;”IN”;IF(‘BOUNDING BOX WIDTH’>0;”SQ IN”;”EA”))

Here we are just outputting text values using the same test criteria. When creating equations in SOLIDWORKS BOMS, it is easiest to use the drop-downs in the equation editor, but if you want to create them on your own, notice that Custom Properties are bracketed in forward apostrophes (`Custom Property`), a Column is bracketed in regular apostrophes (‘Column Name’), and Text is bracketed in quotations (“Text”).

The last step of course is to save your BOM as a template. Left click anywhere on your BOM, right click on the black arrows in the top left of your BOM, and select “Save as”. Save it as a SOLIDWORKS BOM Template (.sldbomtbt) somewhere other than your install directory (so it doesn’t get written over with the install of next year’s version of SOLIDWORKS), and it’s ready to use for all your upcoming weldments.

Hawk Ridge Systems Engineering Team

It often takes a team to solve a problem – and sometimes it takes a team to write about it.
The Hawk Ridge Systems Engineering Team is comprised of our Product Managers, Applications Engineers, and Support Engineers. They’ve collaborated on this blog entry to bring you the most accurate information about the solutions you use for design and manufacturing.

]]>https://www10.mcadcafe.com/blogs/cadcamtipstricks/2014/05/23/make-a-universal-weldment-bom-template-using-nested-if-statements/feed/039Common Modeling Shortcut Commands in SOLIDWORKShttps://www10.mcadcafe.com/blogs/cadcamtipstricks/2014/05/13/common-modeling-shortcut-commands-in-solidworks/
https://www10.mcadcafe.com/blogs/cadcamtipstricks/2014/05/13/common-modeling-shortcut-commands-in-solidworks/#respondTue, 13 May 2014 17:25:50 +0000https://www10.mcadcafe.com/blogs/cadcamtipstricks/?p=26There are so many great shortcut commands in SOLIDWORKS that even the most common shortcuts often go unnoticed. Familiarization with onscreen navigation, and getting a better idea of what you’re looking at is key. I decided to compile a list of the commands that help me when I’m creating a SOLIDWORKS model.

How many of these do you already know? Scroll to the bottom for a printable infographic!

1. [F] for Zoom to Fit: Hit the [F] key to center up your Part/Assembly/Drawing on your screen.

2. [S] for Shortcut bar: This brings up a shortcut bar that you can customize to access certain features. The shortcut toolbar is modal, meaning it changes based on which of the main “modes” of SOLIDWORKS you are currently using: sketching, parts, assemblies, and drawings. To customize this shortcut bar, use the pull down menu Tools > Customize (may need to use the double arrow down at the bottom of the menu to get to Customize), then select the Shortcut Bars tab.

3. Gesture Wheel: This 4 or 8 icon gesture wheel allows you to quickly access more commands at the exact location of your cursor. Just need to right click and hold, barely move your mouse to activate the Gesture Wheel and drag in the direction of the desired command. Then you can let up on your right mouse button. This is also customizable. (Of course it is, after all it’s SOLIDWORKS we’re talking about here!) To customize and switch from 4 to 8 gestures go to the pull down menu Tools > Customize, then select the Mouse Gestures tab.

4. [F5] is the Selection Filter toolbar: These selection filters allow you to control what type of geometry in the graphics area you can click on, such as a face only, edge only, vertex only, etc.

5. [F6] turns off any active selection filter: Sometimes we accidentally hit the default hot keys to turn on these filters (“X” for filter face, “V” for filter vertices, and “E” for filter edges) and we don’t want those turned on. So just hitting F6 quickly gets rid of it for you.

6. [F10] Hide/Show Command Manager: Sometimes you may want more graphics area for designing, this hotkey allows you to Hide the command manager then show it when you need it.

7. [F11] activates the Full Screen to be on/off: Once again, you may want to be able to see more of your design; this allows you to hide the Feature Manager Design Tree and the pull down menus.

8. [Ctrl+Tab] switches between open documents: This is a nice quick and easy way to navigate your open SolidWorks documents.

9. [Ctrl+Q] or [Ctrl+B]: Rebuild [Ctrl+Q] is a forced rebuild that rebuilds the entire feature manager design from the beginning (it takes longer, but it’s more thorough). [Ctrl+B] only rebuilds what has changed or is new.

Want to print out this infographic? “Save As” to your desktop and then print! You can also see it on the web here.

Holly Cheek

Holly Cheek is an Applications Engineer in our Portland, Oregon office specializing in SolidWorks, SolidWorks Composer, and CAMWorks. With a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, she has several years experience implementing SolidWorks solutions. In her spare time, Holly enjoys the Oregon coast, painting, and hiking.